


Replica

by Axonfuture



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: 80's Horror Movie-esque, Activism, Death, Gen, Humor, Investigations, Mad Scientists, Murder Mystery, Police, Post-Android Revolution (Detroit: Become Human), Prosthetics, Research, Spoilers, Swearing, relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:07:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29373567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Axonfuture/pseuds/Axonfuture
Summary: Lieutenant Hank Anderson and Connor (with the reluctant assistance of Detective Gavin Reed) investigate the murder of a woman who bears exceptional likeness to the android model AX400 and has prosthetics made of android technology. Connor struggles to find humanity within himself and Hank battles alcoholism and back pain, the two worst enemies of a middle-aged man. The radicalized android group Deep Blue wants to watch the world burn before building a new android utopia and Elijah Kamski wants no one in his business or basement - and not because of damp damage.
Relationships: Hank Anderson & Connor, Hank Anderson & Connor & Gavin Reed
Kudos: 10





	Replica

“Another day, another dead body,” Detective Gavin Reed said to himself as he parked his rusty Ford Fiesta on the shoulder of the gravel road that split Rouge Park through the middle. The voice of a young female singer on the radio died as he killed the engine. 

His Fiesta was one of his most favorite things in the entire world. He found its burnt orange color rather likeable, mostly because it was difficult to tell which parts were painted and which rusted, both of which were equal in amount. It was trustworthy, except that it definitely wasn’t and reliable, except that only in the sense that one couldn’t rely on it. But all of these things were fine in Gavin’s opinion because the most important feature of the car was that it was so off-putting that not even the dumbest thief in Detroit would attempt to steal it. As such it was _unstealable_. Also, it gave him the perfect excuse to always be in a bad mood, especially on a night like this when it was not only raining but pouring as well. 

  
A lone police officer had isolated the area where the victim lay and was now walking towards Gavin’s car. He had most likely been the first one at the scene and called it in. Gavin rolled down his window only slightly as the officer came to an audible distance. 

”Detective Reed?” he asked, large drops of water falling from his hat and jacket. “Thanks for coming.” 

”Where is it?” Gavin asked as he got out of the car and pulled up his hood. It was soaked through almost immediately. 

”This way,” the officer said and hurried towards the middle of the park where he’d already isolated the area with a police line. In the middle of that area, on the side of the road, was a woman lying face up and bereft of life. 

“Put up a fucking tent immediately,” Gavin commanded. “We’re losing evidence every second.” 

“I’m just a patrol police, sir,” The officer hurried to say. “Crime scene unit has the tents that you’re asking for. They’re on their way. So is the coroner.”

“Call them and tell them to hurry the fuck up,” Gavin said as he squat down next to the body.

He inspected the victim more closely. She was caucasian, middle aged, very thin to the point of near malnourishment. Her eyes were wide open, grey and staring into nothingness. An expression of fear and disgust was spread on her pale features. Upon examining her neck Gavin could make out clear purplish bruising caused by manual strangulation. In his experience most strangulations were done in the heat of the moment by someone the victim knew. It was a very personal way to kill and required a lot of rage or hate to commit.

Her clothing struck him as rather ordinary, a pair of jeans and a dark blue windbreaker, dated but still in clean condition. Gavin’s brow furrowed as he looked at her hands. Her fingers and palms were unnaturally white in color. He took a pencil from his pocket - he never remembered to bring gloves with him - and lifted her sleeve enough to see some kind of a seam around her wrist. Her both hands were prosthetics and definitely android technology. Gavin had very little understanding of things regarding androids but one thing he knew for certain. Anything pertaining to any android technology was automatically a case for the android crime unit.

”Her hands are android technology”, Gavin said.

”Yeah, I’ve never seen a person with prosthetics like that,” the officer replied.

”Yeah, but this is android technology,” Gavin sighed, frustrated. ”You should’ve called Hank, not me.” 

”I just called homicide. I don’t know who they send.” 

Gavin pulled up his hood even further. “Just get the fucking tent before we all drown in here.” 

“Yes, sir.”

Gavin dialed Hank’s number and listened to it ring. Hank wouldn’t exactly rejoice about having to come to work on Sunday evening but Gavin didn’t really give a shit. This was an android crime and therefore it belonged to Hank and that tin can of his. He’d wait for them to arrive and wash his hands of this one. There were enough ordinary murders happening in Detroit for him to solve. 

—

Connor sat on the couch, hands rested in his lap, waiting. Sumo was sitting across from him on the floor observing him with droopy brown eyes. Both of them listened attentively to Hank grunt and grumble as he moved heavy objects in the bedroom. Connor had already asked several times if he could offer his help and been told to sit still and wait patiently.

”Are you sure you don’t need any help?” Connor asked once more when he heard a particularly loud grunt. Hank’s back had been acting up lately and Connor was concerned that he wasn’t getting enough rest for it to heal. 

”No! Stay put!” Hank instructed hurriedly. A few more grunts and some swear words later he added in a more neutral tone: ”Now you can come.”

Connor jumped to his feet and hurried to the bedroom with Sumo in pull. Hank was waiting for them flushed from exercise but looking rather proud standing in the middle of the room spreading his arms.

”Ta-dah!” He said with a tone that was only slightly more excited than his usual tone. 

”Ta-dah? Are you planning to do magic?” Connor asked, puzzled. 

”No, look around!” Hank pointed at the lonely bed by the window. ”I rearranged the furniture so that you have a space of your own!” 

”A space of my own?” Connor asked as he walked closer towards the area Hank had intended for him. Up until this point he had only ever owned the clothes on his back - which he had bought with Hank after the android revolution to get rid of the horrid uniform - and a few bags of thirium. Now he owned more than just a bed, next to it was a small cabinet, a nightstand and a lamp. None of it was new, but they could just as well have been. 

Connor sat on the bed - _his bed -_ and looked around in wonder. He had never owned so much. He opened the top drawer of the nightstand as if to make sure it was real and not imaginary. It contained a light blue pajama.

It’s your home too,” Hank explained after having let Connor digest the new decor. He almost regretted not having given him a space of his own sooner but part of him had expected Connor to leave and join the free androids at Carl’s countryside mansion where most of them had resided since the android revolution.

”It’s perfect,” Connor commended, “I will definitely enjoy a standby state in this bed.” Although he required no sleep it meant a lot to him that he had a bed. So far he had been the only one of the three of them without a place to lay down. 

”And maybe that supercomputer in there-“ Hank tapped his temple, “-could really use some rest occasionally.”

Connor disregarded the inaccuracy in Hank's words like he did most times when he spoke about androids and returned a smile. ”Thank you, Hank.” 

“That’s not everything,” Hank said as he pulled out a small gift box from behind his back. It had Connor’s name on top of it. 

Connor found himself a little perplexed by the gift box. He turned it around in his hands and scanned it for clues pertaining to what could be inside but his investigation could only establish that it had been bought from a clothing store for men.

”You said you were activated this day exactly a year ago,” Hank explained. “I wanted to remember it somehow.”

”Why is that?” Connor asked.

”Well, it’s almost like your birthday.” Hank said as he sat down on the bed next to him. “So, happy birthday.”

“Ah, now I understand,” Connor stated. “I’ve successfully existed for one year.” 

Hank chuckled. “Very funny.” 

Connor unboxed a black bow tie. He had never even thought of changing his style from a tie-wearing guy to a bow tie-wearing guy. Upon a short period of contemplation on the several aspects of fashion he removed his tie and tied the bow tie around his neck.

  
“I feel upgraded,” he said proudly.

“Just say classy,” Hank corrected. Connor had come a long way since the android revolution but sometimes he still had issues with communication and finding the right words to say. 

“ _Classy_ it is,” Connor repeated as if tasting the word while adding it to the list of adjectives he used to describe himself with. “Thank you, Hank. I’ll wear it every day.”

"It’s nothing,” Hank said, playing down the importance of his gifts. He got up to leave and made his way to the door. “I’ll let you get settled.”

Hank headed into the living room and let himself sink into the warm embrace of the couch. His spot had the groove of his body as expected from the most comfortable place in the entire house. He could sit there and watch TV for hours. Hank channel surfed until he found an old basketball game to watch and gradually slipped into a state of relaxation that lingered somewhere between the conscious world and a dream state. 

He was awakened from his blissful relaxation by the infernal ringing of his phone. He picked it up and read Gavin Reed’s name on the screen. His first instinct was to throw the phone down the toilet and flush several times but against his better judgement he decided to answer. 

”What is it, Reed?” Hank asked, not even attempting to hide the irk in his voice. 

“You need to get over here,” Gavin said, getting immediately to the point as was his way of doing things.

“You _do know_ it’s Sunday?” Hank asked. “I’m not lifting my ass off this couch unless you give me a damn good reason to do so.”

”Rouge Park. Homicide.”

Hank exhaled a breath of warm air through his nose in amusement. ”So... you don’t give a shit about your job anymore?” 

”No,” Gavin retorted. “This one has android technology prosthetics. Both hands. That makes this an android crime.” A brief silence. “And also because I don’t give a shit.”

”There it is.” 

”Just get over here. And bring Inspector Gadget too,” Gavin said and hung up. 

"Connor," Hank started, but couldn’t even lower the phone before a notification demanded for his attention. He double-tapped it and saw the red arrow pop up at Gavin’s location in Rouge Park. He briefly weighed the cold, wet weather outside and his desire to stay warm and comfy but at the same time he knew that the victim deserved justice. 

”I'm here,” Connor stated, standing behind the couch. 

“Get your coat,” Hank said as he got up and made his way to the front door. “There’s been a murder in Rouge Park.”

“An android murder?” Connor asked as he put on his coat alongside Hank. He received no reply, Hank had already exited the door into the pouring rain outside. Connor followed suit, but just before he closed the door decided to go back and grab the umbrella that was hanging from the coat rack. Not for himself, but for Hank.

”Is it an android murder?” Connor repeated as he dove into Hank’s front passenger seat. During the short trip from the door to the car they were both already drenched and as soon as the doors closed the car fogged up from the inside. 

”No, but the victim has android parts so Reed wants us on it,” Hank explained as he turned the air condition to the maximum and wiped the windshield with his sleeve just enough to see outside. 

”Makes sense,” Connor pointed out. ”Detective Reed doesn’t have expertise in android crimes.” 

”Don’t say that to his face,” Hank said as he backed the car out of the driveway and drove off. 

“I won’t,” Connor reassured him.

Heavy rain pulled a blanket over their car and although the windshield wipers did their best they could not fully lift it. The world seemed to have sunk into the bottom of the ocean where the streetlights were lures in the dark guiding the way towards the crime scene.

As they arrived they were greeted by only the most essential parts of a Detroit homicide investigation: the coroner, the crime scene unit and detective Reed. Hank parked the car on asphalt a little further from the spot because rain had turned the dirt road into a muddy slide and he didn’t want to risk getting caught in the mud on a night like this. 

Hank opened the door and got out of the car but midway felt a dagger-like pain in his lower back that forced him to lean against the door and cuss. That always seemed to help the pain.

”Are you alright?” Connor asked as he hurried to his side with an umbrella to shield him from the rain. “Is it your back again?” 

”It’s nothing,” Hank reassured as he straightened himself to his full length and twisted and bent his back from side to side to stretch it out. "Imagine hurting yourself while getting out of the car, how ironic.”

”I don’t understand irony,” Connor stated. 

”The joke is that I hurt myself doing nothing.”

Connor smiled more out of duty than amusement. ”I guess that is funny.”

”Yeah,” Hank said as the pain was starting to dull down. ”Once you get to my age everything just starts to fall apart.” 

Their attention turned to Gavin hurrying towards them from the crime scene. He was holding his hood to shield himself from the pouring rain but to no avail. He was wetter than a drowned rat and didn’t seem very happy about it. 

”There you are”, Gavin greeted sourly. ”I’ve been waiting for you ladies all night.”

”Don’t get your panties in a twist. We came as fast as we could,” Hank retorted. His back pain made him less tolerant towards Gavin’s obnoxity. 

”Detective Reed,” Connor greeted formally. Gavin did not respond to him, he hardly even acknowledged he existed. 

”It was a jogger who found the body. I don’t know what kind of a madman jogs in a weather like this but the guy seemed innocent enough,” Gavin spoke as he walked towards the crime scene with the two in pull. “The body’s just over there,” he continued and pointed at the black tent that had been erected around the body. 

Gavin guided them under the police line and inside the tent where they were greeted by the coroner and the crime scene unit. All of them were doing their own investigations and the poor officer that had called Gavin stood in the corner unable to tell whether he was still needed or not. Hank closed his umbrella and made an overview of the victim lying on the ground in something that was almost a puddle of water. Any evidence like footprints or tire tracks were probably already lost due to the heavy rain.

From the corner of his eye he noticed Connor standing still as if he was in a state of shock, eyes wide and the LED on his temple beaming bright red. 

”Connor? Are you alright?” Hank asked, immediately concerned about his android partner.

”It’s… it’s Kara,” Connor replied at length, ”A model AX400 android.”

Hank looked closer at the victim. He had met Kara a few times because he paid her to clean his house. He had hired her as an occasional household helper after the android revolution because - like most free androids - she had struggled to find work to provide for Alice. Offering a small source of income was Hank’s subtle way of helping.

”She does look a lot like her,” Hank agreed. “Like Kara, but older.”

“That’s not possible. This is a human and androids don’t age,” Connor argued as he took a step closer to the victim. He was still a little shaken by the uncanny resemblance the victim had to Kara but he wasn’t going to let it interfere with his investigation. 

”You know her?” Reed asked, he couldn’t hide his rising intrigue. 

”She looks a lot like one of Connor’s friends,” Hank said. Why Gavin had decided to hang around their murder scene was beyond his understanding. 

”Friends? Really?” Gavin ridiculed. ”Do robots have friends?”

”Do you?” Hank retorted. 

Gavin shrugged and attempted to seem nonchalant but Hank had hit a sore spot. It was a well-known fact that he didn’t have (m)any friends because of his troublesome attitude. He didn’t even have a partner. If you asked him it was because he didn’t want to work with anyone. No one had wanted to work with him either. That didn’t bother him. He was doing just fine by himself. 

While Hank and Gavin exchanged words Connor had engulfed himself into an investigation of the body. He scanned every clue he could possibly find and based on those findings he made educated guesses and sought information online to support his findings. Hank counted on his meticulous analysis at each crime scene they visited, therefore he could not overlook a single detail. 

“Find anything?” Hank asked eventually, having given Connor enough time to comprehensively examine the body. 

“Do you have your tablet with you?” Connor asked and Hank pulled it out from his pocket. It began to chime as Connor sent him one image after another pertaining to the investigation. Hank shifted through the images of AX400 and the victim and all the data that Connor had managed to amass in a matter of minutes. A second head grew on his shoulder as Gavin’s curiosity towards the case kept growing. 

“The victim is Lucy Riverora, 41. She was reported missing in December of 2018 when she hadn’t been to her classes at University of Colbridge for four weeks,” Connor paused, allowing Hank to take in the first few images before continuing. “Judging by her body temperature she’s been dead for a few hours. The position the body’s in suggests someone was attempting to get rid of it as fast as they could.”

“Looks to me like someone threw her out of a moving car,” Hank stated.

“Possibly,” Connor agreed. ”The cause of death seems to be strangulation but there is a substance around her mouth and nose that I’d guess is some kind of a sedative. She also has needle marks on both inner elbows.”

“Red Ice?” Gavin asked, intrigued and impressed but attempting to hide both. 

“We’ll have to wait for the toxicology screen to be sure,” Connor replied. He could’ve analyzed her blood and the chemical on her face in a matter of seconds but refrained from doing so because Hank did not like him putting evidence into his mouth.

“She doesn’t look like the type,” Hank said. 

“I wouldn’t think so either,” Connor agreed. “Her hands are expensive prosthetics, any drug addict would already have sold them off.”

“No shoes, so maybe she left in a hurry,” Hank said, looking at the body over his shoulder. “But why are her legs blue?” 

“Looks like issues with circulation,” Connor said as he looked at the feet up close. They had small cuts in them and one of her big toes had been cleanly amputated. “I don’t think she could’ve walked with these feet without excruciating pain, at least not long distances.”

“She’s missing a toe,” Gavin added, “Maybe it’s a token.”

“If this is a serial killer case I’ll murder you for forcing it on me,” Hank threatened only half-jokingly.

“It doesn’t seem like the work of a serial killer,” Connor refuted. “Of course it’s a little too early to tell but the toe amputation has started to heal, so it doesn’t fit with the time of her death. Besides, if this was the work of a serial killer it wouldn’t be such a mess. There would be either something missing that the killer took as a token or a ritualistic component, either of which I can’t discern on this body.”

“Oh, so Inspector Gadget has already solved the case?” Reed scoffed. 

“I didn’t say that. I was just providing my insight based on a scientific approach,” Connor replied matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah?” Gavin asked provocatively as he walked closer to Connor. It annoyed him that Connor was making all these conclusions without having to do any proper police work. The way he _seemed_ to know because he had access to all the data in the world annoyed Gavin to no end. He got in Connor’s face and openly hostilely flicked his bow tie. “You’ve got all the sciences and wifis and bow ties but you don’t know what it’s like to be _a real proper copper with a cop’s intuition_.”

“Don’t touch my bow tie,” Connor retorted with a hint of defiance in his voice. He attempted to always remain calm but Gavin touching his very special bow tie had been too personal an attack and he was ready to put him in his place in case he wouldn’t back off. 

“Or what?” Reed kept provoking as he attempted to stare him down. “You’ll bleed blue on me?”

“Gavin, that’s enough,” Hank interjected. He was one of the few people Gavin respected well enough to listen when they spoke. Slowly Gavin backed away from Connor but kept staring him down like a child who’s been scolded for doing something forbidden.

Once the threat was over Connor continued unprompted: “She has a father who lives in Los Angeles who left when she was little. Her social media accounts have been deleted but as far as I can recover data she didn’t have any contact with him. Her mother died two years ago of lung cancer but maintained that she had spoken with her daughter several times before her death. From what I found on WebMD cancer treatments can cause several side effects including hallucinations so I can’t say whether she was telling the truth or not. No siblings, only a few close friends.” 

“Anything interesting about the prosthetics?” Hank asked once the family background was clear and he had seen all the images Connor had sent into his tablet regarding her family circle.

“The prosthetics seem to have been a school project albeit an unauthorized one. I also managed to recover a post on social media in which she showed off her new hands that were made by her fellow students. It appears that she had type 1 diabetes which ultimately led to the amputation of both her hands during the fall of 2018. Tagged in the post were mechanical engineering students Nicholas Vermen, Eva Matthews and Elijah Kamski.”

Hank recognized the picture of a young Elijah Kamski and wanted to cringe. “Not this asshole again. Now I’m hoping that this is the work of a serial killer.”

“Although unlikely, his involvement doesn’t rule out the possibility of a serial killer,” Connor pointed out. 

“No, I guess it doesn’t,” Hank sighed, not even attempting to explain the joke to Connor. “Are we done here?” 

“Yes. To make further deductions I will need the reports from the crime scene unit and the coroner”, Connor stated. “As for now I can’t find anything else relevant to our investigation.”

“Let’s go home, Connor,” Hank said as he looked at the parallel images of Lucy Riverora and the android AX400 one more time. They were eerily alike and it made him uncomfortable looking at the two of them side by side. He put the tablet back into his pocket and got ready to leave. 

Connor walked past Gavin and exited the tent in Hank’s pull and once outside under his umbrella. Gavin noticed that the rain had let up just a little as he hurried after the two. 

“So… you’re heading home, right?” He asked while attempting to sound nonchalant.

“Yeah,” Hank said. He unlocked the car doors and Connor got into the front passenger seat.

“Can I get a ride home too?” Gavin asked. “My Fiesta got stuck in the mud.”

“So that’s why you’ve been hanging around our investigation all night,” Hank laughed as he walked to the driver’s side. He opened the door. “Why don’t you use your _real copper’s intuition_ and find a different ride?” 

“You’re fucking kidding me!” Gavin exclaimed. He only had one other option. "The coroner's a creep! I don't want to get into the same car with her!"

Hank shrugged with a cheeky smile as he closed the umbrella and got in the car. 

“What was that about?” Connor asked as he closed the door. He had only heard Gavin’s frustrated scream.

“Nothing,” Hank replied. He knew that although Gavin got in Connor’s face and gave him a lot of shit Connor would still have helped him in a tight spot. That was the thing, Connor didn’t understand that assholes like Gavin didn’t learn their lessons unless they got a taste of asshole treatment themselves. 

—

Connor looked at the ceiling with his hands crossed on his chest and felt fully immersed in the experience of going to bed for the first time. He had folded his clothes neatly on the cabinet after changing into the pajama and laid his bow tie on the nightstand with great care. He had lifted the covers and found a comfortable position on his back. During Connor's meticulous execution of the act of going to bed Hank had brushed his teeth (for less than two minutes) and fallen asleep before he'd even reached a horizontal position on his bed. Connor wasn’t quite ready to go to sleep yet. He wanted to revel in his gift a little longer. It was a pretty amazing thing to have: _a space to call his own_. 

At the same time Detective Gavin Reed had finally made his way home. The final steps up to the third floor of his apartment building felt like they were a mile high each. He opened the door to his small studio apartment and almost from that spot collapsed into his bed. Water dripped from his clothes and soaked into his sheets. He didn't care. He was too tired to undress.

Although he was exhausted he couldn’t fall asleep. Thoughts kept running in his head and the murder scene he had just returned from dominated them. The victim and how similar she looked to an android model Cyberlife had produced for quite a long time was bizarre to say the least. Her prosthetics, her blue feet and the strangling marks demanded his attention. He wanted to know what had happened to her. Also, he had been impressed by the flawless partnership that Hank and Connor had shared and no matter how much he didn’t want to admit it, Connor had actually been rather useful. His access to what seemed like an endless amount of information was nothing short of incredible. 

Why he kept returning to the thought was because the officer in charge of Detroit police station, Jeffrey Fowler, had suggested him an android partner to work with. Ever since the android revolution there had been increasing pressure by the public to hire more androids into all fields of work but due to the lack of actual jobs most of the androids had become disillusioned with the future. A radicalized group titled Deep Blue had formed and become a thorn in the mayor’s side because it was proof that the peaceful coexistence of androids and humans had not been instantaneous - far from it. The mayor had attempted to meet them in the middle by encouraging public offices to hire more androids and even funded it but beliefs and attitudes were not changed so easily and Deep Blue had begun rallying to get him out of office.

Eventually exhaustion got the best of Gavin and he fell into a restless slumber. He had a recurring nightmare about his time in juvenile detention with the difference that it wove itself into the events of the day - Deep Blue, the murder victim, Hank Anderson and Connor. The dream itself made no sense in its absurdity as dreams rarely do. He woke up to his alarm Monday morning drenched with cold sweat and still in yesterday's wet clothing. As he lay there cold and uncomfortable he wondered whether or not it was worth it to get up at all to go to work. No one would even notice if he didn't show up. Why would anyone bother about him when he himself cared so very little?

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there and thank you for reading! ( ・ ̫・)੭ I'm happy to see you here and I hope you enjoyed this first chapter of Replica as much as I enjoyed writing it! I'd love to hear your thoughts so feel free to comment or leave kudos! ❀


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